Student With Allergies Hazed With Peanut Butter

This Student With A Severe Peanut Allergy Was Hazed With Peanut Butter

It's pretty much a given that hazing rituals are a part of fraternity and sorority life. However, many Greek life organizations have been known to take things a step too far, endangering the lives of their pledges.

According to People, Central Michigan University is currently investigating an incident that occurred last fall, during which a student who is severely allergic to peanuts was involved in a fraternity hazing ritual that included peanut butter. Andrew Seely, who was hoping to join the Alpha Chi Rho fraternity, was allegedly covered with peanut butter while he was passed out.

In a post to her Facebook page, Seely's mother, Teresa Seely, wrote that her son could have been killed.

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"He was sent to the campus health clinic by a professor and treated," she wrote. "Luckily he is still alive."

Teresa also wrote that the family has notified campus and city police, local news agencies, and have contacted an attorney.

"Our son does have an Epi-pen and carries Benadryl tablets in his wallet at all times," she wrote.

"Our family is devastated,” she told the Detroit Free Press. “We thought we were sending our child off to school in a safe environment, and obviously that wasn’t the case. He could have died from this. He has a deadly peanut allergy.”

“We take these types of things very seriously,” Heather Smith, a spokeswoman for the school, told People. “So the CMU Police Department and CMU’s Office of Student Conduct responded immediately and started looking into it. The alleged incident would have taken place off-campus, so we involved the Mt. Pleasant Police Department because that would have been their jurisdiction. To my knowledge, there still has not been a police report filed with them, but it’s a potentially criminal matter.”

Smith also told Detroit Free Press that the fraternity was already banned from official recognition for hazing incidents in 2011, and the university and its interfraternity council had denied the fraternity's requests for reinstatement as late as last fall.

Serious peanut allergies can causeanaphylactic shock, which can involve symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, and even fatal cardiac arrest. Luckily, Seely was treated early enough, but in case it needs repeating: It's never okay to put someone's life at risk for a hazing ritual.